Unfinished Business
by Heachan
Summary: A new splinter group are building an army of Wing Zero's but they need the one person who knows the Zero system. This is the
1. Confusion with no ransom

Unfinished Business  
Disclaimer: Dude I don't own them, but I no good at making up my own guy characters. Plus they're so cool and I think there weren't enough episodes as it was.  
  
When she woke up, it was late. In fact, it was much later then she remembered it being. The sun was now setting and the room was getting dark. She looked around and no one was there with her. But she remembered him being there when she drifted off to sleep. Although this wasn't the first time he had disappeared on her. She would just have to go look for him. She stood up from the couch and had to steady herself before moving. She couldn't understand why she felt so dizzy. On the coffee table, were two glasses, which helped her know what had happened earlier. She remembered that a new person on the house staff had served them in that room. She glanced over at the clock. 'But that was over three hours ago, and why did I fall asleep so quickly before.' She headed for one of the nearby guest bedrooms.  
  
"Heero?" She called opening the door. "Are you in here?" She asked only to see that he wasn't. All of his things were still there though and by the looks of it, he had recently been on his laptop. The screen was up and there were disks lying all over the desk. He was usually more organized then that. She started to frantically search for him throughout the house. Eventually she ended up back in the room she woke up in. What had happened? He wouldn't leave like that, not at a time like this.  
  
"Where are you Heero?" She called softly putting her arms around herself. She looked at the table again. For some reason her attention kept going back to it. What were they drinking again? One of the glasses was half full while the other was barely touched. Something just didn't seem right about that to her. Whatever happened, she was desperate to know.  
  
***(About three hours earlier)  
  
Relena walked into the sitting room to find Heero on one of the couches, reading. He wasn't in the clothes she had given him before, but in his regular clothes. She just shook her head and decided it was pointless mentioning it to him, again. If he didn't want to fit in there then that was his decision. She quietly sat down on the other couch nearby.  
  
"So how'd your meeting go?" He finally asked her, not looking up from the book. He usually didn't start these conversations with her so she was surprised by the question.  
  
"It went very well, thank you. Have you been in here the entire afternoon?" She said back. He glanced over at her. She greeted his gaze with a smile.  
  
"Yeah, pretty much. There wasn't anything else to do." He answered. She closed her eyes and nodded in agreement. She knew he couldn't contact Preventer headquarters now since there were people after him. She didn't know why they were though, he never told her that part. All she knew was that he had been there for a couple of weeks now. With her at her meetings during most of the day, he didn't have much else to do. Although it wasn't like he was bored or anything. He probably preferred staying inside alone. If he didn't then he wouldn't be there now. One of the maids came in with two glasses on a tray and set it down infront them. It was the new maid, Relena noticed looking up at her.  
  
"I thought that you'd like something to drink after your meeting." She explained straightening up and leaving the room.  
  
"Thank you." Relena called after her and picked up her glass. Heero finished reading and stood up to stretch. Relena took a sip of her drink then put her glass back on the table.  
  
"Well now that I don't have any more work for the day do you want to do something?" She asked him. He looked down at her.  
"I guess, if you really want to." He remarked. "But are you sure that you have time to do anything?" He mentioned picking up his glass, also taking a sip. Relena sighed and looked down.  
  
"I know that I have been busy since you got here and we haven't had any time together. But today I decided to take the rest of the day off. Even I need a little time for myself." She explained taking her glass again. Heero sat back down and looked at her in such a way it made her feel uncomfortable.  
  
"I don't want you to feel that you have to neglect your responsibilities just because I'm here." He told her. She gulped down more of her drink before answering him.  
  
"I'm not neglecting my responsibilities. I can take an afternoon off and the world will still be here tomorrow. Your not distracting me if that's what you think." Heero just leaned over and took another sip of him drink.  
  
"I was just making sure that wasn't the case. I didn't come here for that purpose." He said back putting his glass down again.  
"I know you didn't and I'm not distracted by you being here." Relena answered leaning back in her seat. She felt tired all of the sudden and wondered if it was the conversation. Were they actually arguing here? They never really argued before, at least they hadn't in a long time. But she knew why Heero was saying all these things. It was his way of showing he cared about her and her work. She went to stand up but went back down. She looked over at Heero, trying to focus. He wasn't really paying attention to her anymore. She put her hand to her head and closed her eyes. He noticed her suddenly.  
  
"Relena?" She heard him say and saw him get up. The next thing, he was right by her but she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. Heero grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her gently.  
  
"Relena? What's wrong?" His voice actually revealed concern. The maid from before came in after hearing him.  
  
"Is there a problem?" She asked him. She spoke in such an uncaring tone. He looked up at her.  
"She just fell asleep. I can't wake her up." He explained showing how aggravated he was by the question.  
  
"Oh that's it, that's nothing to worry about." She said back. He went to stand up only to feel dizzy. He sat back down, trying to focus. Just like Relena had done. He looked down at the glasses on the table, then back up at the maid.  
"What did you give us?" He demanded weakly.  
"Nothing that will wear off in a couple of hours. This was the only way we could get to you." She explained smiling at him. He glared at her and tried to stand up again only to fall back.  
  
"There was more in your glass." Came another piece of information from the so-called maid. Shortly after that everything went blurry and then dark.  
***  
  
"He's missing." She said into the phone not hiding how concerned she was.  
"Are you sure? I mean it's not the first time he's just taken off on you like this." Duo said over the vidphone. She let out a low sigh.  
"I know that..but.. this is different. Something's not right here. Please you have to find him. He could be in trouble." She answered back. Now he let out a sigh.  
  
"Okay, okay, we'll come down and check things out for yah." He promised. He made it sound like she was so close but it was a long trip to get to the Sanq Kingdom from space.  
  
"Thank you. Please hurry." She remarked.  
"Hey, don't worry Relena, I'm sure he's fine." He told her. Their conversation ended there. He headed for the bridge to let Sally know what was going on.  
"When did this happen?" She asked him after hearing about the recent phone conversation.  
"Sometime this afternoon. She's really worried though and I didn't want to add to it. I don't think Heero told her the details anyway." Duo explained.  
"We shouldn't have just let this case go. It was too dangerous." She mentioned. Quatre and Trowa stood nearby.  
"So what's the plan?" Trowa asked walking over.  
"I think the three of you should go. Wufei and I will stay here and see if we can get any information about that guy who stole those plans for Wing Zero before. If we find him we should be able to find Heero." She instructed them. They all headed for one of the hangars.  
***  
  
"So what are we looking for anyway?" Quatre asked Trowa as they looked around Relena's sitting room.  
"Anything suspicious I suppose." He answered back not looking up from what he was doing. Relena watched from the doorway telling them what she remembered as they looked. Quatre went over to the coffee table and picked up one of the glasses. It was Heero's since it was mostly filled. Trowa went over and took it from him and smelled it.   
  
"Did Heero drink any of this?" He interrupted her. She looked over at them and nodded. He put it back on the table.  
"These drinks were drugged." He stated getting both Relena's and Quatre's attention.  
"But why is Relena still here then? Why didn't they take her too?" Quatre asked back. Trowa shook his head and went for the bedroom door nearby. They both followed him.  
  
"They weren't after her, that's why." He said back opening the door. Duo was sitting at the desk, typing on the laptop. He turned around when they entered.  
"Find anything?" Trowa asked him. He pointed at the screen.  
"Yeah, whoever was on this last was looking through all his files. They even tried to get into the locked ones." He explained.  
"Did they find what they were looking for?" Quatre asked taking a look at the screen. Duo just shook his head.   
"Do you know if any disks are missing?" Trowa mentioned picking one up.  
"I don't think so. Guess your hunch was right." Duo added looking over at Relena. She just lowered her gaze to the floor.  
"I think I'll go see if any of the staff knows anything about this afternoon." She decided and left the room.  
  
"So I guess we should let Sally know what's going on." Quatre said to the other two. Duo sat back in the chair with his arms crossed infront of him.  
"Maybe someone should stay here with her for a couple of days." He suggested. Trowa and Quatre both looked at him, assuming he was volunteering. He finally realized they were looking his way and immediately put his hands up.  
"Hey, I wasn't suggesting me here. There's nothing I would want to do more then stay." He admitted.  
  
"Well then what's stopping you?" Trowa asked already certain he would be staying anyway.  
"I'm still kissing up at home after that whole OTHER incident a couple months ago. This wasn't what I had in mind.." He added. Trowa just shrugged.  
"I'll stay. It shouldn't be a problem for me." He said back.  
"Are you sure, Trowa? I could stay instead if you'd like me to." Quatre offered. Trowa just shook his head.  
"No, Sally will need you and besides you've got things other then this case to worry about. It'll be fine." He decided and left the room. The other two followed him out. Relena met them in the hallway.   
"I asked the staff about this afternoon, but none of them know anything." She told them disappointingly.  
"Whoever is responsible for this is smart so I wouldn't think anyone would know what happened." Quatre replied. Relena perked up suddenly.  
"Yeah but the newest member on my staff is missing. She was the one who served us the drinks before." She added.  
  
"Do you have a file or anything about this person?" Trowa asked quickly. She headed to her office and they followed.  
"I keep all my files on my staff in here." She explained pulling out a folder and handing it to Trowa. He flipped through the pages then shut it. He handed it to Quatre.  
  
"Give this to Sally, it should help out." He informed him. Since it was so late   
now, Quatre and Duo decided to wait till the morning to head back to space. Quatre contacted Sally to let her know their plans and what they found.  
"So you don't know if they got any information from his computer?" She asked once he had filled her in on everything.  
"It's hard to say but it's possible. They covered it up though if they did." He said back. There was a moment of silence.  
"How's Relena doing now?" She mentioned.  
"She seems to be doing better now that we're here. Did you find anything about that guy on your end?" He asked. She shook her head.  
"Not really, it has been awhile since we looked into this case. So it's hard to just pick up where we left off." Sally explained before sighing.  
"It would seem that you pilots can't stay out of trouble." She added. Quatre nodded in agreement with that. He always seemed to be in the middle of these situations.  
  
"Well I should let you get back to work now. I hope you find some useful information. Everything in this case isn't turning out too well. The sooner we get back there the better. Guess we'll see you tomorrow." He ended their conversation. Relena quietly walked away from the door, unnoticed.   
  
She headed to her room and shut the door behind her. She then proceeded to the balcony, just gazing out at the quart-yard. It was really dark and quiet out there. Too dark and quiet actually. She leaned her elbows in the railing, trying to make sense of the day. But as much as she tried, nothing made sense. She wearily gazed up at the sky sadly. Was he up in space now? Or still on earth? How long would it be before they knew anything about his whereabouts? She let out a long doubtful sigh. She wished she could just stop thinking about it but it didn't seem like that was a possibility.   
  
"Nice night." Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted. She glanced behind her to see Duo, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed infront. How long had he been there? She dropped her gaze quickly.  
  
"I suppose it is." She smiled weakly trying to hide her sadness. Duo came out farther onto the balcony. Relena wasn't too sure why he was out there at all. He leaned against the railing as she had.  
"So we're heading out tomorrow." He told her. She simply nodded back. She really wasn't in the mood for a discussion at that point.  
"Trowa's going to stay with you for a couple of days though." He added. She looked over at him and noticed he was just enjoying being there. Just looking up at the sky and smiling. Despite the circumstances.  
  
"Aren't you worried at all?" She inquired going back over to the railing. He turned to face her.  
"Nope, Trowa can take care of anyone that bother's you." He said trying to make light of the conversation. Relena didn't seem to catch it though.  
"Not that,..about Heero? We don't even know where to start." She mentioned. He straightened up some.  
"Oh that, he'll be fine. If we don't find him, he'll find a way to escape anyway." He reminded her. She looked back down at the quart-yard.  
"All I can do lately is worry. I know he can handle these people but still. I don't know what they want him for and there's just so many things that could happen. I don't know what to do." She admitted sadly almost in tears. She finally looked back up at Duo.  
  
"He's gonna be okay. Just keep reminding yourself that. And as far as doing anything goes, your helping us out more then you think." He explained. She finally smiled confidently.  
  
"Thank you." She said back.  
"Oh now don't go thanking me. It might give me an ego." He laughed and went back to looking at the sky. She continued to smile, thinking of how odd this was. She laughed to herself, catching Duo's attention again.  
"What's so funny?" He asked her.  
"You are. What's so great about the sky?" She pointed up.   
"Well you are spoiled aren't you. It's a nice change that's what's so great. You need to come to space more then you'll appreciate it down here." He said back.  
"Maybe when this is all over I can come up. To visit." She thought outloud.  
"You'd better come visit us." He told her implying Hilde and himself.  
"Of course." She promised. Shortly after that, he left and she went to bed.   
  
But despite the previous encouragement, the same doubts and worries bothered her the rest of the night. 


	2. Searching for a conclusion

***(The next morning)  
  
Relena was up unreasonable early but that was because she hadn't slept very well. She got dressed and opened the doors to her bedroom getting ready to go to breakfast. The first thing she saw was the three Preventers, who had all crashed on the couches. It was an unusual sight to see and she couldn't help but smile to herself. Trowa was on the one couch while Quatre and Duo were propt up against each other on the other couch. She wondered how long they had stayed up, keeping watch. There were afterall plenty of guests' bedrooms that they could have used for the night. She just assumed they considered themselves on the job. From what she could tell they didn't intend on falling asleep. But she had had nights like that. She would be working late and sleep would just sneak up, so she understood. She tried to get by without waking them up but Trowa woke up before she made it to the doorway. She saw him out of the corner of her eye and turned back, motioning for him not to say anything. That wasn't a problem for him. He stood up and left the room with her.   
  
"Did you sleep at all?" He asked once they were out in the hallway. She shook her head but smiled that he even bothered to ask.  
"You didn't have to sleep on the couches though, there are plenty of guests rooms." She mentioned but he just shrugged.  
"We were okay. Besides what if someone tried to get to you. They'd have to pass by the three of us." He answered ending the conversation. Relena looked away and got caught up in her thoughts. She realized how much she missed Heero and wondered if he was alright. The same things that went through her mind the night before. It made her feel sick, the more she thought about the situation. They were both quiet the rest of the way to the kitchen.  
***  
  
Back in the sitting room outside Relena's bedroom Quatre woke up first, seeing Trowa was gone. He quickly sat up, causing Duo to fall over.   
"Duo, get up. Where's Trowa?" He asked shaking Duo awake. Duo sat up suddenly when he heard him mention Trowa missing.  
"You joking right? Now he's missing too?" He said looking over at the other couch and then saw Relena's door open. They both walked over to see she wasn't in there. They started to search the entire house only to find her in the kitchen, along with Trowa.  
  
"You guys scared us, you can't just leave like that." Quatre said sitting at the table, trying to calm down. Duo walked over as well, turning one of the chairs around, sitting in it backwards.  
"Well we assumed that you'd find us eventually." Trowa mentioned in his normal stoicistic way. Relena nodded to them.  
"I didn't want to wake you up." Relena admitted. "So are you two going to stay for breakfast?" She added. Duo just shrugged and Quatre sat back in his chair thinking.  
  
"I guess we can stay but then we really have to leave. Sally needs our help tracking this guy." Quatre told her. She nodded in agreement.  
"I'll have one of my cars take you to the spaceport afterwards then." She offered them.  
"Thanks, we really appreciate it." He answered.  
***  
  
When he finally woke up, the first thing he realized was how much his head hurt. He tried to focus on his surroundings. He was handcuffed, behind his back and on the floor. Probably in the same spot he was thrown. Suddenly his memory kicked in. Whatever happened he wasn't in the Sanq Kingdom anymore. The only question he had now was how did they find him in the first place? No one else knew where he was, or at least no one else was suppose to know. He hadn't even called Relena when he was planning to come, just because someone could have been listening in on the conversation. He sat up finally, feeling kind of sore. He doubted that they had treated him nicely while he was unconscious. Whoever they were, they were going to pay for what they did to him and especially for what they did to Relena.  
  
They had alot of nerve getting her involved in this. Although he kind of did that himself. But he never expected them finding him either. They could have come after him while she was away at her meeting. He looked around but couldn't make out any details. All he could see was pitch black. There were no lights, not even a way to tell where the door was or if there even was one. He wished he had a flare on him, but he never carried them anyway. He could hear two people talking, somewhere outside the room. Their voices were muffled so he couldn't tell what they were saying. Suddenly there was a bright light that caused him to shut his eyes. There was a door afterall, apparently that was where the light was coming from. Then there was a shadow, someone standing in the doorway.  
  
"So it would seem that these peaceful times HAVE affected you." Came an unfamiliar voice. "Especially since we were able to catch you so off guard." They added. Heero blinked a couple of times to get use to the light and glared back up at the stranger.  
  
"Well if you think I've gone so soft then why not uncuff me and find out." He said, his tone low and threatening. The stranger just laughed back as though what he said was funny. He didn't say it as a joke though. He meant it and planned on knocking the grin off this guy's face. He didn't like being handcuffed or thrown into a dark room. And he especially didn't like being tracked down and then drugged.   
  
"I don't think uncuffing you would be in my best interests. I have a good idea what your capabilities are though." Was the response he finally got back. Heero tried to stand up but only made it half way before feeling dizzy again. The stranger grinned even more at that.  
  
"We drugged you alot more then your girlfriend." He said causing Heero to look up at him again. "We have to be able to control you afterall." He added still smiling.   
  
"No one controls me." Heero shot back angrily.   
"Oh sure, no one. What about the Preventer's, or Dr. J before them. You're used to people controlling what you do." Heero continued to glare at him. This guy had no room to talk, considering he was probably following orders himself.  
"What do you want with me?" He finally said trying to get out of the handcuffs without being noticed.  
  
"I think you already know what we want. Afterall you left L2 and went to earth before we even started looking for you. You know more about Wing Zero then anyone else. More specifically the Zero system. We want that information." Heero didn't bother answering.  
  
"We already know that Wing Zero isn't worth anything without the system." The guy added.  
"And you just assumed that I'd give it to you." Heero finally replied. The stranger stopped smiling at that point but glared back at Heero.  
"Oh I'm sure you'll give it up, but when you do is completely up to you. In the meantime we'll be sure your stay here isn't a very pleasant one." So now he was threatening him. He could deal with that. They weren't getting that information though, no matter what they did.  
  
"You might as well leave cause I'm not telling you anything." Heero told him. That made the man angry and he pulled out his gun and aimed it right at Heero's forehead. He didn't even flinch.  
"And shooting me isn't going to get you the information either." He added not sounding remotely intimidated. The stranger removed his gun from Heero's head but hit him across the face, hard. Heero shook his head as the guy went back to the door.  
  
"Well get comfortable then cause your going to be in here for a while." Was the last thing he said before shutting the door. The room was plunged into darkness again. Heero maneuvered so that he could get his hands around to the front. Once he did that, he checked his jaw to see if it was bleeding. The guy didn't seem to hit him that hard. At least he was gone now. He talked too much and was annoying. The least they could do was send someone who didn't talk so much. He found a wall to lean against and continued trying to get the cuffs off. Since there was no light it made things more difficult. He also didn't have anything on him that would help get them off. He finally let out an angry sigh. If things kept going this way, they better hope he didn't get them off. He usually didn't enjoy his assignments but blowing this place up, he probably would.   
  
By now the Preventer's had caught on to the fact that he was missing and were on the search. He wondered if they had figured out that Relena's maid was in on this whole scheme too. Hopefully the 'maid' didn't stay in the Sanq Kingdom but left with whoever else was a part of it. He sat back against the wall, the room was kind of cold now that he thought about it. 'They'll get me out of here, I know they will.' He told himself confidently.  
***   
  
"We'll never find him. We don't even know where to start looking." Duo sighed slouching in his chair. Everyone looked over at him then went back to looking at the file Relena gave them earlier.  
  
"Well there's an address here for this lady. As well as one for that other guy. So that's a starting point." Sally informed them.  
"So do these people have names or what?" Duo asked looking over at the papers infront of them.  
"Yes but those are probably not their real names anyway. So we're not getting into that." She answered.  
"So we should check these two addresses to see if we can find any leads there right?" Quatre suggested. Sally nodded back.   
  
"I think that Relena should come here for her own protection and that way Trowa can help you in finding them. Then you can split into teams of two." Sally decided crossing her arms infront of her, still thinking about their strategy.  
"So what are we expecting to find at these two addresses anyway?" Wufei asked her.  
"Anything that will help us find where they took Heero. There has to be some kind of evidence. Now to discuss the two separate teams. When Trowa gets back,..Quatre, the two of you can take this one address." She said handing him one sheet of paper. He looked over it before folding it in half and putting it in his pocket.  
  
"Alright, I'll let Trowa know about the plan." He told her.  
"Okay so that leaves Wufei and Duo to take the other one." She said handing the other paper to Wufei.  
"What did I do to you?" He demanded looking at her. She looked back not sure what he meant by it.  
"You had to team me up with him?" He added gesturing across the table. Duo realized he was talking about him.  
"Hey! You're not the best person to work with either. Sheesh." He grumbled putting his hands behind his head. Sally just smiled and stood up.  
"I'm sure you can handle this one assignment together." She answered and left the room. Wufei got up and followed her out.  
  
"I guess Wufei doesn't like to handle these situations." Quatre noticed leaning on the table.  
"Well I wish he'd stop taking it out on me." Duo said back sighing. "I hope we find something soon." He added. Quatre nodded back.  
***  
  
Later that day, Quatre called Trowa to let him know the stategy. Duo and Wufei were both on their way to the L4 colony area, where their assignment was. Since Relena had some work she had to get done before they left, Trowa decided they would wait till she was finished with that and then they would head to space to meet up with the rest of the Preventers. Relena had been in her office the entire day and wasn't able to get much done since she was so preoccupied. She finally gave up on working by seven that evening. She turned out the light and headed for her bedroom. She didn't see Trowa anywhere in the house. It was very quiet and dark now. She noticed the light was on in Heero's guestroom and she poked her head inside the doorway to see what was going on. Trowa was typing away at the laptop obviously trying to find something. She came all the way into the room not making any noise so not to disturb him.  
  
"I'm checking for any files on Wing Zero." He said before she was in sight. She practically jumped when he said that.  
"There might have been some information that they didn't already have." He added. She moved farther into the room.  
"Why would they want any plans for it though when there's nothing left?" She asked him. He didn't look over at her as he talked.  
  
"It wasn't completely destroyed. They stole the left over parts from the Preventers and don't have all the information they need to finish it. They're mostly after the Zero system."   
"But I thought that only Heero could handle that system? So why would they want it?" She mentioned. Trowa glanced over at her, a bit surprised that she knew so much about the Zero system.   
"As true as that is, there are still people out there who think they can eventually get to a point where they will be able to handle it. But they're wrong. That system is dangerous." He answered her. Relena stood back amazed that she was getting this much information out of Trowa. He usually didn't say that much to her. Or to anyone else either.  
  
"Why are you telling me all this anyway?" She finally said. He still didn't look at her.   
"Because your involved in this case now. And you have a right to know. If it wasn't important for you to know then I wouldn't be telling you." He remarked. Relena covered her mouth as she yawned. She desperately tried to hid it.  
"You had better get some sleep now. We have a long trip tomorrow." He added still typing. She just nodded sleepily and headed off to her bedroom.   
Later that evening, Relena woke up suddenly from her sleep. She wasn't quite sure why, maybe she had a bad dream. She sat up in bed to realize that she was still in her business suit. She got up and went out into the sitting room. The clock on the wall showed how late it was now. She headed for Heero's room but froze when she heard a low voice from behind her.  
  
"What are you doing up this late?" She forced herself to turn around to see Trowa on the couch again. 'Did he always sleep so light?' She wondered trying to calm down from the sudden fright.   
"I was checking to see if you found anything. Of course I didn't realize it was this late." She admitted. He turned on the couch, trying to settle back down to sleep.  
  
"Don't worry about it. Just go back to bed." He added. She nodded her reply but he probably didn't see it in the dark. She headed back for her room. She attempted to sleep but it wasn't easy.  
***  
The next morning, they headed for the spaceport where they got their shuttle. The entire time, Relena didn't say anything but looked out the window. She usually did that when she went into space. She was trying not to think about Heero but she couldn't help it. She was anxious to know his whereabouts and whether or not he was alright. It was the same thing for three days now. The same worries and questions. It didn't change during this time. She just sighed to herself and closed her eyes. She realized that there was some anger in her worries. It had been forever since she was able to spend time with him and finally had the chance. He wasn't distracted by anything and that was a rare thing. They had to pick NOW to take him away from her. She might not have even known about this situation if they hadn't done it now. She usually didn't have these selfish ambitions but she did afterall deserve a break too. She had been working so hard and was expected to be so professional all the time. It was starting to get tiresome.  
  
"You okay over there?" Trowa asked looking over at her. She looked up not sure what to say.  
"I'm fine. Really, I just want to get there as soon as possible." She lied. He leaned over to check on their status.  
"It shouldn't be much longer." He answered.  
"Thank you for taking me." She smiled   
"Don't mention it." He said in his monosyllabic way. "It's my job."  
Once they got to the ship, they headed to the control room where they found Sally and Quatre. Sally gave Trowa his orders and Quatre followed him out of the room. Relena sat down in the chair infront of Sally's desk. Sally was busy filing and didn't really notice her sitting there. She finally saw her.  
"Did you want something, Relena?" She asked leaning back in her chair. Relena looked up suddenly at her.   
"I was just wondering if you've found anything that will help in your investigation" She mentioned what she had been obviously thinking about for awhile.  
  
"We've gotten a few leads that we are looking into." She answered back. Relena nodded her response. Sally didn't want to get her hopes up if they didn't find anything.  
"If we do find something then you will be the first to know." She added. Relena lowered her face and clenched her fists in her lap. She almost seemed angry and upset at the same time. Sally wasn't sure why she was doing that.  
"Are you okay?" She asked leaning over the desk. Relena hid her eyes and stood up.  
"I'll be fine. I guess I'm just tired from the trip." Sally could hear the sadness in Relena's voice. She would have stood up and walked Relena out but she decided that she probably wanted to be alone.  
  
Relena left the room and headed out into the hallway. She wasn't even sure where she was going. She didn't know this ship very well. And she also didn't know everyone either. It seemed as if anyone that passed by, she didn't recognize. She suddenly felt lonely. But despite the way she felt she swallowed and blinked the tears away. 'I feel so powerless here. I want to help but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do.' She had stopped walking at this point.   
  
"Heero where are you? I want you here with me." She said softly wrapping her arms around herself comfortingly. She closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. 'This isn't helping either. All this thinking.' She lectured herself and started walking again. She wasn't about to make a scene infront of all the strangers. She turned the corner and finally saw a face she knew. Hilde was reviewing some files when she saw Relena coming towards her.  
  
"Hey! When did you get here?" She asked greeting her friend. Relena smiled slightly almost forgetting the frustration she had just recently been feeling.  
"I just got here today." She answered trying to sound cheerful. They went into one of the break areas.  
  
"Well this is great. I was just about to go on my break. So how are things in the Sanq Kingdom?" She asked nonchalantly. They both sat down and Relena folded her hands on her lap and sat up straight.  
"I guess you heard what happened?" She mentioned obviously needing to talk about it. Hilde looked back at her seriously and nodded.  
"Yes, Duo told me about it. But I know Heero's okay. He can definitely take care of himself. And after what I went through I have a better perspective on these situations now." She said confidently. Relena smiled at her enthusiasm.   
"Thanks I could really use some encouragement right now. No one else seems to understand that." She realized. Hilde smiled back at her.  
"Well I can definitely relate. I'm sure he'll be just fine." She remarked then added; "Are you hungry? I was on my way to the cafeteria if you want to come." Relena decided to take her up on the offer since she hadn't eaten all day.  
***  
  
After Relena left, Sally got in contact with Trowa and Quatre to see how they were doing on their side. They had located the one address. They were on L1 at that point and had checked out the area in which they were assigned to search. No one was there however so they had to ask around to see if anyone else knew anything.   
"As it turns out that guy who tried to get a job as a Preventer, was a part of the White Fang and disappeared once the war had ended." Quatre explained to Sally over the Preventer's secret line.  
"So this whole thing with Wing Zero could have started then? But why didn't they just steel it from Heero right after the war if they wanted it so badly." Sally thought outloud.  
"From what everyone here has told us, this guy admired Mariemia's revolt against earth so there was a good chance they didn't start this until that entire ordeal was over with. And Wing Zero was already destroyed by then." Trowa informed her.  
  
"So did anyone tell you where you might actually find this guy?" She asked back.  
"No they didn't really know where the guy could have gone. It seems that the Preventer's were the last ones to have any contact with him." Quatre answered.  
"Well since your finished on your end I suggest you come back here immediately." She told them. The conversation ended there. She then called Wufei and Duo to see if they had found anything.  
  
"Nope. This ones a dead-end. Sorry." Duo said to her. She let out a frustrated sigh. Wufei pushed Duo out of the way quickly as though he had found some new information.  
"What about the other two?" He asked, implying Trowa and Quatre.  
"They ended up with the same thing you did. But they did find out alot about the guy. We just can't seem to find him." She answered.  
"From what I've found there is another address that we overlooked before." He told her. She perked up and leaned closer to the screen.  
"Where'd you find that?" She inquired. He smiled back at her, looking very proud.  
  
"I found the forwarding address from this one. So we still have one shot left." He explained. Sally sat back in her seat rather impressed. Duo sat there with his arms folded infront of him. "It would have been nice of you to let me know what you found." He grumbled to himself. Wufei ignored his comment. Sally decided to have them come back as well that way all four of them could go on this assignment. 


	3. Secrets from the enemy

He tried to get back to sleep. To just ignore the pain in the back of his head, but it wouldn't go away no matter how hard he tried. He was beginning to wonder if they waited for him to fall asleep in order to toss him around the room a couple of times. But that would include drugging him again because he would probably wake up in the process of being thrown. Did they actually think that was going to work. Or were the just going to leave him in there until the silence and darkness got to him and he gave in to their demands. They seemed to know him a bit better then that, since they knew alot about Operation Meteor and his assignments. But he didn't care how well they knew him, he was going to eventually get out of there and he didn't care how he would do it. Even as a Preventer, even though he wasn't suppose to kill anyone ever again, these people had over stepped their boundaries. Relena came back to mind. She probably wouldn't want him to do anything rash. He wondered how she was doing now. He assumed that she was worried about his safety. He was amazed that they hadn't taken her with them. He didn't care what happened to him or if they killed him. But if they had brought her along with them and threatened her, he would have no choice but to comply with their demands. The more he thought about how worried she was, the more he knew he just had to get out somehow. It usually wasn't a problem for him, however they knew so much about him and had taken so many measures in order to predict him. It was hard to determine how to catch them off guard.   
  
It felt like he was sitting there for hours until the door opened, letting in more light then he had expected. He closed his eyes again putting his hands up in order to block some of it. He wondered if they kept it so light out there on purpose. It wouldn't surprise him. This time there were two people. He couldn't tell if they were guards or not. They went over to him and grabbed him by both arms. He tried to struggle only to realize he didn't have the strength to fight back. They had to be guards, there was no doubt about that now. He tried to get his feet to move but they were going so fast that he couldn't seem to get his legs to cooperate. They brought him down a long hallway and into a large room where someone was sitting at a desk looking through some files. He didn't recognize the guy. The two officers forced him down in a chair infront of the desk.  
  
"Sir, we brought you Heero Yuy as you requested." The one soldier said stepping back.  
"Thank-you, the two of you can leave us now." He told them. The both looked at him in disbelief. "Are you sure that's such a wise decision to leave you here alone with HIM?" The other one asked. The man just waved the two away.   
  
They left and Heero just sat there waiting for some explanation for him being there. The man continued to look through his files until he was ready to talk. He looked up with a slight grin, regarding Heero's features. He looked like he hadn't slept well in quite awhile. His hair was all messed up and his clothes were dirty. Heero just glared back with cold eyes, not really caring about his appearance. The man placed his elbows on his desk and folded his hands together, leaning forward.  
  
"I decided I'd try to convince you to cooperate now before things really get out of hand." Was the first thing the guy said. Heero didn't bother responding.  
"You do of course understand that there is no way you can leave here unless to give us that information." He added still waiting for some kind of answer from across the desk. But there was nothing said. He sat back in his chair still looking Heero over.  
  
"Do you even know how long you've been here?" He asked, but Heero just continued to stare back, his facial expression unchanged. The man finally let out a low sigh. He picked up his papers on the desk and tapped them lightly so that they were now in a neat pile infront of him.  
  
"Well I had hoped you would reconsider helping us out. I would think that you would be somewhat cooperative. Afterall you are a soldier and well I thought you'd understand our position in this matter. Regarding the Wing Zero being rebuilt." Heero realized how irritating this guy was. He was never one for sitting down and talking things over. They didn't come to him like that, they took him by force. He thought about what to say back but decided just to sit there and wait to be taken back to the dark cell. The man across the desk however, didn't seem ready to do that just yet. He apparently wanted to continue this one-sided conversation.  
  
"Perhaps it wasn't explained to you what we're trying to do here. We are a group that wants peace however, we want the colonies and earth to be separate from each other. We feel as though the earth is going to continue to take advantage of us even if peace has been declared. The fact of the matter is the colonies want to be independent, well that would mean being completely separate from the earth and it's government. Does this make any sense to you? There will be peace but the two need to be separate. Otherwise the conflicts between the two will never end because there are people on both sides who aren't satisfied with the result. I just feel it would be in everyone's best interests for earth and the colonies not to unite under one government. Wasn't that the main idea behind Operation Meteor?" He explained. Heero couldn't hold it in any longer.  
  
"You don't know anything about Operation Meteor." He stated bitterly. Then he sat back and was quiet. The man smiled slightly, happy with himself for getting a response out of Heero.  
  
"Oh I don't do I? Who do you think gave them all the equipment and funds? It all came from my organization. Yes the Barton Foundation helped too. We all hoped that the Gundams would fulfil this idea. Then plans got altered and before we knew it our idea wasn't the main objection anymore. But it's not like it was your fault for any of that. You just went with what you were told to do and when you didn't have any orders, you improvised the situation. It would have worked but too many obstacles got in our way." He told him. Heero sank in his seat. He wasn't able to think clearly. He had never met this man or was told about where the supplies had come from. He looked back up at the guy angrily.  
  
"Now if you don't want to join us I understand. But I would like that information and I really don't see why you should have to endure any more here. So even if you don't want to join at least give us what we need so that we can continue with our plan. I know you can understand that, coming from the colonies yourself." He added, waiting for Heero to reply.  
  
"I am not going to help you. Simply because of the fact that what you're doing is going to result in many unnecessary deaths. So you might succeed but the cost will be devastating in the end." He said, ending the conversation. The man just stared at Heero disappointingly.  
  
"Very well then, I don't have any other choice." He said standing up. "I was trying to help you. You see my soldiers follow my orders but I trust them to make their own judgements on certain situations, without coming to me first. Guess your just going to have to be one of those situations." He decided picking up his folders. Heero read the subjects on each of them. This man didn't try to hide anything. He recognized the titles and understood each one. They were mostly things about codes that had to do with Operation Meteor and himself. No one was suppose to have that kind of detailed information. The guards came back in and grabbed him roughly. The man who had just talked to him, had vanished. He didn't even bother to figure out where to.   
  
The soldiers threw him back into his cell again only this time they didn't leave. One of them pulled out a piece of cloth and tried it around Heero's face like a gag. The soldier backed away, grinning wickedly.  
"You had your chance to talk before. Now it's too late." He said smiling even more. Heero recognized him as the soldier from before. The door made a loud sound as the other one closed it, once again making the room darker then before.   
  
'So we're going to fight in the dark, huh?' Heero thought to himself. This did give him some kind of advantage since they couldn't see him. But then again he couldn't see them either. Plus the fact it was two against one didn't help much either. Heero heard them both coming for him and he sidestepped, trying to get to the door. They heard him move though. He knew they had figured out where he was. The one came close enough to where he could punch the guy with both hands. He was still cuffed afterall. He heard the guy fall backwards hitting the wall, then he leg-swepted the other one. They both groaned loudly, trying to get back up.   
  
Heero continued his way to the door when a strong hand came from behind and grabbed him by his shirt. He could hear it tearing while he was being pulled back. Heero reached for the gag around his face and threw it to the ground. It was making it hard to breath. The soldier slammed Heero against the wall, hard. His shoulder made contact first with the concrete. It made an awful cracking sound and he fell over. As he tried to stand up, the soldier came over and with one swift movement, kicked Heero in the chest. He coughed as the air was knocked out of him. But he didn't have enough time to catch his breath as the guy's fists hit his face knocking him to the other end of the room. Just how big was this guy anyway? Heero stood back up wearily, trying not to gasp so much for air. It gave his position away. They were shocked he was back up so quickly. He felt a boot hit him in the back, sending him to the floor again. So much for his advantage.   
  
He stood up again and tried to figure out where they were now. He ran straight for one and slammed into the guy, head on. But the other one was right behind him ready to slam him against the nearest wall. The cell wasn't big enough for a fight like this. He leaned against the wall. He forced himself to stand, preparing to attack again. A shot rang out, echoing around them. Heero felt a sharp pain shoot through his left leg. He fell back still gasping for air. 'Stop breathing so hard.' He lectured himself trying to stand steadily once more.  
  
"What yah go and shoot him for?" He heard the one say to the other. "He's moving too much. I don't want to chase him anymore." The other decided, with his gun still aimed at Heero. Heero just smiled to himself ironically. That wasn't such a bad shot considering it was in the dark and the guy still managed to hit him. He was thinking too much like a Gundam Pilot, again. And it wasn't helping either. He started to feel weak. Another shot rang out, this time the pain was in his shoulder. That one barely missed but not by much. He tried to grab his shoulder, cringing. If they were going to kill him, he wanted it over with. He sank to his knees looking at the ground, as if giving up. There was another kick in the chest. Then a heavy, painful, force came down on his back causing him to collapse on the ground. He was still breathing hard, despite his efforts. He went to push himself back up only to feel the weight of one of the soldier's feet land on both arms. He groaned angrily as the guy kept stomping his foot on his arms. He tried to roll out of the way. He succeeded in that attempt, now on his back.   
  
Just as the other soldier stood right above, aiming his gun at him. This shot he knew was coming as the soldier cocked it. He put his arms up to block his face and turned on his side quickly, avoiding most of the shot. The shooter angrily grabbed Heero off the ground by his hands, causing them to bend in an unnatural way. He could feel his fingers starting to ache. He kicked at the guy, hitting him several times but he didn't let go. He felt a couple of the guys ribs crack from his sneaker hitting him in the chest. That caused the soldier to become angrier. He was about to stop Heero from kicking him again when his partner interrupted.   
  
"I think that's enough for now." The other said straightening up.   
"But he just..." The guy started to say.  
"I don't care. You should have been more careful." Came the curt response. The one, still holding Heero off the ground just angrily tossed him against the far wall one more time. His head hit this time, causing the room to spin. The one soldier went over to picked up his gun. Heero coughed and gasped even more now. The soldier looked at him maliciously.  
  
"Now maybe you'll tell us about that system." He smirked heading for the door. Maybe he should just let them have the Zero system. Then it would drive them all crazy like it usually did to 'normal' people. But then that would have made these last twenty minutes that went by not worth it. And besides whenever that system went out of control, there were usually casualties involved. The door slammed shut again. He coughed one last time and rolled over to sit up. He leaned against the wall, just trying to breath normal.   
  
Everything seemed to hurt. He went to whipe the sweat off his face when he noticed his hands were bleeding. Both of them. He tried to move his fingers and more pain shot through them. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the light to get a better look at his injuries. He noticed the cloth from before and picked it up, hoping to use it. He put some pressure on his leg where he had first been shot. It made his hands burn even more. Anyone else would have quit right there. Now breathing was starting to hurt. Once his leg stopped bleeding, he ripped the cloth with his teeth and tide it around the wound. He did the same for the cut on his shoulder as well. When he was done with that, he did the same to his hands.  
  
He slouched over and pulled his legs up, wrapping his arms around them. It seemed to get colder now. His stomach growled loudly and he realized how hungry he was. He wasn't sure if they would actually kill him any time soon. He almost wished for it now though considering how much his body ached. He leaned forward, resting his chin on his knees. If they really thought that beating him up and starving him was going to work they were highly mistakened. He'd been in similar situations and food really wasn't something he worried about. He wanted to sleep but there were too many thoughts and he couldn't find a position where he wasn't hurting.   
  
His thoughts drifted to Relena. Would they go after her? That one guy did mention her being his 'girlfriend'. Was she his girlfriend? He never actually thought about it but he guessed that would be the best description of their relationship. He had always respected her and they got along for the most part. And whenever he thought about her, he tried to hide it. She would be upset if anything happened to him. He remembered what Hilde had gone through only a few months ago. Would Relena go through that too if something happened to him? Would one of the Preventer's step in where he wasn't anymore and take care of her? Watch over her like he always had. Quatre was always working as was Wufei, Trowa had a home to protect, himself and now Duo had his own life with Hilde. It would be too hard putting something like that on them. He had to make it through this if not for himself then for her.  
  
"Relena." He muttered under his breath. "Things would be simpler if I wasn't so close to you." He told himself. But he had to admit that he had changed over the past couple of years. He could have kept himself at a distance but then he wouldn't have all the good memories he had now. And he didn't have too many good memories before Relena came into his life. Actually he couldn't think of almost any. The more he thought about it the more it made sense that his life would be empty without her in it. She was always something to look forward to. All he had now was his job and the people he worked with. There wasn't anything outside of that, other then Relena. He wasn't getting any sleep at the rate he was going. Too many thoughts. More questions then he could answer right now. But he was determined to find out.  
***  
  
All the Preventer's working on this case were now present in the conference room, onboard their ship. They had located the next target in the investigation. They would leave shortly after this briefing. There was still alot that was unsure of in this case however the clock was ticking and they didn't know how long Heero had. Once the meeting was over, the former Gundam Pilots headed for their shuttle. Sally handed the case file to Duo for him to bring into the filing room. He'd join the other three in the hangar. Sally had shown Relena to a room where she could rest. She was there unpacking her things for the duration of her stay. Or that's where she was suppose to be. No one had checked on her lately. Hilde and she had lunch a couple hours ago and then Hilde got back to work at her desk. She was finishing up transferring some important documents when she felt a gentle arm come around her shoulders from behind. At first it caught her by surprise but then she relaxed in Duo's embrace. She leaned back and rested her head under his chin.  
  
"You shouldn't sneak up on me like that yah know." She mentioned looking up at him. He just smiled back, proud of his stealthiness.  
"I don't know any better." He teased handing her the file he had received from Sally. She looked at it and tossed it next to her keyboard. He bent over to see what she was doing.  
  
"So you're leaving again I guess?" She said sounding kind of sad. He nodded back still looking at her computer screen. She continued typing as she leaned over, close to his ear.  
"Just be careful." She said a little above a whisper. He smiled back confidently.  
"You don't gotta worry about me. I'll be just fine." He assured her. He stood up and caught the concerned look on her face.  
  
"What? I'll be fine." He said again. Her facial expression didn't change as she put her head down. He leaned down to her again, placing a hand on her shoulder.  
"Hilde, what's the matter? If it's about what happened a couple of months ago, I pro..." She cut him off.  
  
"This has nothing to do with that." She started still looking away from him. "Duo...these people are,..they're dangerous." She mentioned sighing to herself.  
"Yeah I know but that's why we have to stop them. No one else can." He answered in a gentle tone.  
"There's something I didn't tell you about them." She said back slowly. Duo's eyes grew wider. He turned Hilde in her chair to look at her face to face.  
  
"What are you talking about?" He said, trying   
not to sound so demanding to his wife.  
"Remember about a week ago, when Sally needed you here and I stayed home?" She began and he nodded his reply slowly. "They showed up at the apartment. I didn't let them in, but they were looking for Heero. I didn't let them know that I even knew who they were talking about but they knew anyway. They weren't very nice and claimed they were only going to leave us alone if they got that information from Heero. I was so shocked they even searched on L2 for him." She ended and took a breath. Duo continued to stand there, not saying anything. She couldn't see his eyes since his bangs were in the way.  
  
"Are you mad at me?" She finally asked, causing him to look up.  
"At you, no way. You just gave me another reason to get back at them. I'm just glad that your okay." He explained giving her a slight smile. She knew what that mischievous grin meant. She had seen it before. Those people were certainly going to pay for all the problems they had caused. She had no doubt of that now. She placed her hand on top of his, he glanced back at her, waiting for some kind of reason behind her touch.  
  
"Promise me, you'll be careful." She said with an intense look in her eyes. He smiled more at her and nodded. "I'm coming back. I always come back but this time I have someone to come back to." He said lightening the conversation. She finally gave him a half smile and he stood up to leave. Before leaving the room he called back to her.  
  
"Just be sure that file makes it's way into the filing cabinet. We wouldn't want it getting lost." He added and headed down the hallway. She just sighed to herself and went back to work. Once he made it to the shuttle, they headed to their destination. 


	4. Rescue and Relief

It didn't take them long to reach the colony. It was one of the outer one's, pretty much out of the way. It had a small population of people living in it. A good place to hide. They landed, only to learn the address was right next to the spaceport. It was a large warehouse, an empty one too.  
  
"There has to be some way of finding these people." Quatre sighed looking around the old crates and large rusted machinery. No one had been there for a while.   
  
"Well this might be the right address so maybe they might have an area here where they're hiding." Trowa suggested. They searched the entire place but there wasn't much there. Wufei called everyone over the farthest side of the building.  
  
"There's some new wiring here." He pointed to the wall. They all pushed against a large crate nearby that might be hiding something behind it. They almost had it pushed far enough when they heard a female voice from behind them. They all went for their guns but stopped when they saw it was Relena. Wufei grumbled.  
  
"What's she doing here?" He demanded, crossing his arms over his chest. Duo elbowed him for the comment. Quatre walked over to her.  
"Relena it's too dangerous for you to be here." He said, his tone soft with concern for her safety. She nodded in agreement.  
'Yes I know that. But..I..can't sit around and do nothing. I want to help you." She said sounding brave. Duo scratched the back of his head while Wufei angrily turned back to the crate. Trowa walked over to her, he obviously had an idea.  
"I know how you can help." He told her. The others listened in carefully. "Go in the truck and keep an eye out for anyone who looks suspicious. If you see anyone you can radio us inside. That way we'll know if we're being followed or not." He explained to her. She nodded, relieved that she could do something for them.  
"Thank you, I'll be sure to do that." She smiled and headed for the truck, which was parked next to the warehouse.   
  
They went back to pushing the crate again. They looked behind it and sure enough there was a steel door blocking their way. Once they had the crate completely out of the way, they blew the door open. It was dark inside. Wufei went in first making sure the way was clear. Once he gave the rest of them the signal they followed him in. The hallway came to an end where a door was obviously blocked by something on the other side. They forced it opened, knocking over whatever kept them in. It was a bookcase. They had also knocked out a guard who must had taken notice of the moving bookcase.   
  
"Well that wasn't too hard." Duo whispered to Quatre. They closed the door that led out of the office, they were now in. Trowa shut the blinds on the windows that looked out or rather in. He turned to the others.  
"It would be best if we split up." He suggested. Wufei backed away abruptly.  
"I'm not teaming up with Maxwell again." He declared a little too loud. Duo just rolled his eyes. Trowa quickly motioned for Wufei to be quiet.  
"I'll go with Duo, and you and Quatre will team up. If either team finds Heero we have to let the other team know. This place probably has cameras so watch for them. If you take out any soldiers, be sure not to leave a trail...Wufei." Trowa mentioned almost cracking a smile. Wufei ignored the comment and tossed the bag, he carried over his shoulder. They moved out.  
  
"So how many guys do you think they have?" Duo asked Trowa as they went down another long hallway towards the center of the base.  
"Who knows. We could be easily out-numbered or have an advantage. It's hard to say with these splinter groups." He said back in a low voice. They entered a large room. It was obviously where all the technicians worked considering the large amount of tools and scrap metal. They both hid behind some of the scrap. No one appeared to be in the room with them. It was dark except for the little light from the hallway and the other exits.  
  
"We need to get over to that doorway." Trowa whispered. A couple of soldiers came from one of the exits and ran past the two of them. They pressed up against the large amount of metal. Duo got a better look at it.  
"Uh, did you notice this yet?" He said, in a hushed voice to Trowa, once the soldiers left the room. Trowa looked at it and nodded his reply.  
"It's Gundamium Alloy. Somehow I don't think they were going to rebuild just one Wing Zero." He remarked. They got out of their hiding place and headed for the doorway.  
  
"Oh yeah sure make a whole bunch of 'em. Like one wasn't enough trouble." Duo muttered under his breath. They found another room, obviously the control room for the base. No one was in there. They closed the door behind them and went over to the controls.  
  
"Considering that no one is here, it's possible that they know we're here already." Trowa commented hitting a few keys on the keyboard. Duo pulled open a drawer from underneath the panel. There were several cards laying inside.  
"These must be part of their security system." He observed taking them. He went over to another control panel.  
"Are you looking for Heero?" He asked, beginning to type as well.  
"Actually I'm trying to find out how far along they are in reconstructing Wing Zero. We might have to destroy that too while we're here." Trowa informed him.  
"That shouldn't' be too difficult." Duo replied continuing to hack into their system. Trowa pulled out his communicator.  
  
"Quatre, are you there?" He called into it. Quatre answered him right away.  
"Are you anywhere near area 57 on the base?" He asked him. "Yeah that's a couple sections away from us. Why? What's going on?" He said back.  
"That's where they are rebuilding Wing Zero. See if you can find out how far they've gotten. We may need to destroy it." He explained.  
"Okay we'll check it out." He ended the conversation quickly. Trowa looked over to see how far Duo had gotten.   
"Find him yet?" He asked leaning over. Duo had a mischievous look on his face.   
  
"Not just yet. I felt it appropriate to leave this first." He answered. A slight smile crossed Trowa's face as he watched Duo finish typing.  
"Hey they deserve this after all the trouble they caused us." He added. Trowa went back over to the other panel and started searching for the area Heero would most likely be held in. While the computer began the search, he noticed a couple of files nearby and read their subjects. He decided it would be best to take them as well. He quickly found the area and they both headed out in that direction.  
***  
  
Quatre and Wufei made it to area 57. To their surprise there was more then one Wing Zero in the process of being built.  
  
"So they were going to produce more then one. Should have seen that coming." Wufei said to Quatre. He just sighed and looked down.  
"Why can't these groups accept things the way they are. There's no point in rebuilding these things in order to start another war." He said back to Wufei.  
"I don't know but they definitely went too far this time." Wufei retorted unloading his bag. There were several explosive devices inside along with detonators. He tossed an explosive to Quatre, who absentmindedly caught it.  
  
"We better get started before they know we're here." He added. Quatre nodded resolutely and went to work. They set up the explosives on each of the duplicates of Wing Zero. It didn't take too long. Quatre jumped down once he finished putting the last one down and set up the detonator. He pulled out his communicator to call Trowa in order to let him know they were all done.  
  
"Alright, the two of you can head back to the truck and wait for us. We're almost done over here. We know where Heero is, well that is where we think he would be if he's even here. So we'll be out in a couple of minutes." He explained. Quatre relayed the information to Wufei and they went back the way they came.  
***  
  
Relena sat in the front of the truck waiting impatiently when she saw a shadow moving toward her. She got down low in the seat, hoping that they wouldn't notice the unfamiliar truck sitting outside the warehouse. There was no sound except for the footsteps that seemed farther and farther away. Relena released the breath she had been holding.   
  
"I suggest you come out of the vehicle now." Came a loud voice from outside the truck. A chill went up her spine as she realized she had been caught. She went for the handle and opened the door, stepping out. The end of a gun first came into view. She didn't flinch or move for that matter.  
  
"Heh, we never figured you'd ever show up here." Came the voice again. She recognized the face behind the gun. It was the 'maid' from before. Relena remembered suddenly what had happened. It was this women who was responsible for Heero disappearing so suddenly.  
  
"Well since he won't cooperate with us I'm sure this will be an incentive, now."   
The lady added motioning with the gun for Relena to move towards the building. Relena didn't move causing the lady to cock the gun and move closer to her.  
"I won't go with you. I won't be used for your evil plan." She said bravely.  
"Yeah well you would say something like that considering you're from earth." The women answered still waiting for Relena to move.  
  
"Relena, look out!" Quatre yelled from across the parking lot. She ducked down and the lady started shooting rounds off at him. He jumped out of the way. Wufei came up behind her and knocked her unconscious. He stood up looking down at her.  
"Weak." He muttered picking up the gun. Quatre headed over to help Relena up from the pavement. Wufie picked up the other lady and turned to Quatre.  
"What should I do with this one?" He asked him.  
"Just put her in the building. We don't want to draw any more attention to ourselves." He said walking with Relena over to the truck.  
  
"Did you find Heero?" She inquired. Quatre shook his head.  
"Trowa and Duo are looking for him. They told us to come out here till they get back." He explained. Relena didn't respond but got back in the truck. Wufei came back over and they sat in the truck, waiting.  
***  
  
Trowa and Duo made it to the confined area. They checked each of the rooms using the key cards, Duo found in the control room. They got to the end of the hall. This was the second to the last door they were opening. Trowa slid the card in the panel next to the door. It quickly opened. Heero was still slouched against the far wall. He didn't bother to look up yet, assuming they were soldiers. They remained in the doorway.  
  
"Well this is something I never thought I'd see." Duo said, causing Heero's head to jerk up. The two of them walked in to help him up.  
"Are you able to walk?" Trowa asked him as he stumbled a bit then stood all the way up.  
"I should be able to manage it for now. How'd you find this place?" He asked them.  
  
"Can we discuss this later? We haven't been caught yet and would like to keep it that way. It's obvious that they don't treat their guests nicely." Duo observed how bad Heero looked. They both swung one of Heero's arms over their shoulders, heading for the door. He flinched as his own shoulder began hurting. Trowa pulled out his communicator again.  
  
"Quatre, we're coming out." He reported. There was a loud explosion on the other side of the base. Alarms began going off and most of the staff headed to area 57. Heero closed his eyes as they made it to the warehouse. He started to realize how tired he was. They got into the truck and took off for the spaceport. Once on board their shuttle, they left the colony.  
  
"Seems as if we weren't even noticed till the end there." Trowa mentioned to Duo as he piloted. "Well they'll know who was responsible later." He grinned. Relena helped Heero to the back. They sat down and Heero leaned against her. She bent over, wrapping her arms around him. He felt cold to her. Quatre handed her his jacket and she put it around him as well.  
  
"Are you okay, Heero?" She asked, lightly brushing his bangs out of his eyes. He sat up suddenly and looked towards the front of the shuttle.  
"What about the plans? They still have them for Zero." He pointed out. Trowa turned in his seat to face him.  
"Don't worry, Duo already took care of that." He said back. Heero rested his head back down and looked up at Relena. She looked so relieved to see him. He closed his eyes again and eventually fell asleep.   
***  
  
Meanwhile back at the base, pandemonium spread quickly. The leader came into the control room to see what the problem was. The sirens in the background finally were shut off, but it was still hard to understand what was going on.  
  
"And what about Heero Yuy? Is he still in his cell?" The leader asked one of his soldiers.  
"I don't believe so sir. This was an obvious attempt to get him out." The soldier answered. "Well what's the damage report then?" The leader was becoming impatient.  
  
"All of our work to rebuild Wing Zero has been destroyed. But none of the workers were killed in the explosion." Was the reply. The leader smiled grimly.   
"Well at least we still have the plans." He mentioned.  
"Hey what's this?" One of the other soldiers asked who was typing at the control panel. A large smiley face came on the screen laughing at them. Then a message appeared as well which read: Your computer systems have been hacked into by the God of Death. So all information has been deleted. Have a nice day. The leader stood there with his fists clenched at his sides. He stomped out of the room angrily. None of the soldiers said anything at that point.  
***  
  
When the Preventer's got back to the ship, Sally and Hilde were waiting for them. When Sally saw Relena come off with them, she smiled and shook her head.  
"So that's where you went. I had a feeling you'd be with them." She said, crossing her arms infront of her. "We really need to get Heero to the medical section." She answered back. Sally looked over at Quatre.  
"Is your sister still here?" She asked him. He shook his head. "No she left awhile ago. I could try to contact her for you though." He offered. Sally looked over at Heero whom Trowa and Duo were carrying. He was still sleeping. He didn't look too be doing very well. He was dirty and she could tell he had been injured badly. She shook her head resolutely.  
  
"There's no time. I'll take care of him." She decided. Quatre looked at her surprisingly.  
"But I thought you didn't like to deal with these situations." He mentioned. He was right of course, she felt like she couldn't handle this kind of situation in a professional manner. But that didn't matter to her right now.  
***  
Trowa and Duo helped Sally get Heero onto the table. However he wasn't sleeping but unconscious again. Things might have been easier if he was just sleeping. It made his condition all the more urgent. Quatre followed them into the room.   
  
"Can I help at all?" He offered standing in the doorway. She didn't answer him right away. Trowa headed to the door and past him as he came farther in. She was busy getting Heero's IV straightened out. Heero shivered a little on the table. Duo went and got a thin blanket from the closet nearby.  
"Sally, I want to help." Quatre reiterated. She looked up at him and stopped what she was doing. "Please let me." He added. She nodded at him and went back to work.  
  
"There's some antibacterial stuff in that cabinet over there. You can clean him up some." She informed him. He left quickly and came back with some gauze as well. He then preceded to unwrap Heero's hands. He made a face as he did so. Duo and Sally lifted Heero up from the table in order to get his dirty tanktop off. Sally went back to the monitor next to her. The screen wasn't working right and she fooled with the knobs on it.  
"So I guess you want to help too?" She asked Duo, who was standing behind her. He suddenly hit the top of the machine and the screen came on. He stood back, grinning at her.  
  
"If you need me, I can. So long as things don't get too gross." He answered. She smiled back, showing her gratitude.  
"I don't think it will." She said as she finished getting the IV in Heero's arm. Then she went over to the closet and pulled out three white coats for them. She didn't want any of their uniforms to get dirty. She also got some gloves as well. She hadn't done this kind of work lately but she knew procedure.  
***  
  
Out in the waiting area, Relena wouldn't sit down like the others. Wufei finally got sick of watching her pace back and forth. He decided not to look at her or in that direction either for that matter.  
  
"He's going to be fine. Especially with Sally taking care of him." Trowa told her. She just nodded back. "You should just try to not think about it." He added turning his attention away from her. Hilde walked into the room. She was a bit heated seeing the other two just sitting around, waiting.  
  
"Okay if no one else is going to get back to work then I'm not doing it all myself." She declared taking a seat. Relena couldn't help but smile at what she said. Hilde crossed her legs and looked around the room.  
"So where are the other two?" She asked curiously. Wufei pointed to the closed door labeled Emergency Room. "Their in there. Why, I'm not even sure." He said quickly not giving it much thought. She sat back not completely understanding the reasoning herself.  
  
"Well that could be considered a scary thought." She mused, looking over at Relena, hoping to cheer her up. She covered her mouth trying to keep from laughing. Trowa even cracked a slight grin at the remark.   
  
"That's not the most flattering thing you've said about Duo you know."   
Trowa mentioned closing his eyes as if in deep thought. Hilde looked over.  
"Well it's the truth. I wouldn't be in there since I don't have any knowledge in that field. Now if it was a computer or some kind of machinery then that's different." She elaborated. Relena smiled even more.  
  
"She does have a point." She added. Wufei stood up and headed for the exit.  
"I can't wait around like this. I have more important things to do then listen to you three talk about such nonsense." He grumbled. Hilde narrowed her eyes at him but he didn't see her glare. He didn't understand the purpose behind the conversation. But it was ridiculous trying to explain it to him anyway. Relena finally stopped pacing and took a seat next to Hilde. That made Hilde and Trowa feel less awkward now.  
***  
  
It had been exactly one hour since they had gotten back to the ship. Sally was almost done cleaning and bandaging Heero's wounds. A slight movement of his hand caught her attention. She straightened up and put her pair of scissors down on the tray nearby. She waited to see if he was going to wake up. She looked at the monitor.  
  
"That's not gonna help you." Duo mentioned to her over the table. "This is Heero we're talking about afterall." He added. She nodded in agreement and couldn't help but smile. Quatre was cleaning some of the equipment across the room, not paying much attention to them. Sally looked back down when she heard Heero groan softly.  
  
"Heero? You awake yet?" She asked him. He opened his eyes wearily and gave her a slow nod. She smiled back.  
"Good. You guys have to stop scarring me like this. You're too hard to replace." She told him. Duo shot her a look. She met it and smirked even more.  
"Oh very funny." He said crossing his arms infront of him. Heero glanced over at him.  
  
"Why's he here?" He asked, still a little dazed. Sally laughed at that.  
"He's just helping me out. I wouldn't do that to you, don't worry." She replied. Duo raised an eyebrow at her. "Okay next time you won't get my help. You can just fix your own stickin' monitor." He decided. Quatre came over once he realized Heero was awake.  
  
"Hey, can I go let the other's know he's okay?" He asked Sally. She nodded, giving him permission. He quickly left the room.  
"So what's the damage anyway?" Heero said to Sally as she finished cutting the last bandage. She put her scissors back down, for the last time and handed the tray to Duo.  
  
"It's not so bad. I'm surprised they would actually shoot you though. The Alliance didn't even do stuff like that." She explained.  
  
"Let's not get into what the Alliance use to do." Duo said as he brought the tray over to the counter. Heero just let out a low sigh. He tried to sit up from the table but then decided against it. Sally bent forward.  
"You really need to take it easy for awhile. I don't want you moving around so much for a couple of days." She added.  
"Unfortunately I don't think that's gonna be a problem." He agreed bitterly. 


	5. The long awaited Proposal

Shortly after that they moved Heero to ICU. Sally leaned against the wall, whipping the perspiration from her forehead. Trowa walked over to her.  
"Busy week?" He asked her. She looked over at him and smiled weakly.  
"You could say that." She answered back. "Actually it's been a busy couple of months. This is the second Gundam Pilot to be in ICU. I thought you guys were tougher then this." She admitted.  
  
"Sorry to ruin your illusion. Guess we just don't have the same motivation as before." He said, leaning against the wall along side of her.  
"So what about this splinter group? Do we need to go back out there to put them into custody yah think?" She asked him. He gave her a questioning look. She usually didn't ask him for his opinion on these things. He looked down and crossed his arms.  
  
"Considering that we didn't leave them with many resources I'd like to think that they'd be smart enough to give up. But since that's never the case, maybe we should keep an eye on them. I don't know if Heero would be okay with us only doing that much. Maybe you should be asking him this question since this had more to do with him then me." He explained. She looked at him from the side. She wasn't expecting such an extensive response. There was an awkward moment of silence. Trowa pushed himself off the wall.  
  
"That's my cue to leave. I know you'll figure it out" He said back, as he walked off.  
***  
  
A couple hours went by and Heero was permitted to have visitors. Relena was the first one in the room. When she walked in, he looked up quickly, knowing it was her already. How he knew, he wasn't sure. She sat down on the side of the bed, next to him. Neither of them had said anything yet. She appeared to be taking note of his current state. He actually felt bad that she had to see him like this. He glanced down at his injuries. They probably ran out of medical supplies because of him. Especially on white gauze which he had always hated how it felt. And Sally was definitely a professional considering how tight she had tide it. He looked back up at Relena. She was just sitting there, happy to be in the room with him. The questions from before came back to mind, and he tried to push them away.  
  
"So you seem to be doing better now." She mentioned looking down at his bandaged hand. He nodded his reply slowly. She gave him a slight smile.  
"Well that's good to know." She admitted. For some reason she was having a hard time talking to him and she wasn't sure why. She avoided looking up into his eyes. She always felt weak when she did that. She felt his hand brush against hers, causing her to look up, despite her own advice. The expression on his face she couldn't understand. He almost looked sad to her. She forced herself to look away.  
  
"Heero.."  
"Relena.."   
  
They both started at the same time but neither of them finished. She looked back up at him but he had his head down keeping her from seeing his eyes. Why was it so hard to be here with her? Was it because of all the mind games from before? They didn't know him as much as she did. All they knew was what had been written. He had changed and it was probably because of her. But that could be looked at as a good or bad thing. He tried not to think about it but couldn't get his mind off it. Relena stood up, deciding that she couldn't stand the silence from him any longer.  
  
"I'll let you get some rest. I'm sure that you need it." She said and turned to leave. He went to grab her hand but she moved away too quickly. 'Why don't you stop me Heero? Ask me to come back or something. Why is it always like this?' She brushed past Sally as she entered the room. She didn't understand why Relena was leaving so soon. She had just gotten there. Sally walked over to the bed. Heero was obviously lost in his own thoughts as he wasn't looking at her or anything else either.  
  
"You still in there?" She asked him, waiting for his reply. He came back to reality and looked up at her.  
"Did you need something?" He asked her, forcing his thoughts to the back of his mind. Sally wasn't sure what was going on between Relena and him but she didn't want to pry.  
"Well I was wondering if you want us to press any charges against this group. From what I hear, they aren't much of a threat now. However I wanted to know what your opinion was first." She explained. Heero thought about it then just shook his head.  
"No, they won't be bothering us anymore. Although you might want to double check, just to be sure." He decided. They only seemed to complicate things and the idea of following up with charges was too much for him at that point. Despite how angry they had made him. All these unresolved issues with Relena seemed to steal his anger and attention away.  
"Okay if you really think so. Are you feeling better?" She asked, taking a closer look at his injuries. He let out a low sigh.  
  
"Is EVERYONE going to ask me that today?" He mentioned. She was surprised at his tone. She stood back up feeling somewhat angry.  
"Hey I'm the one taking care of you. It's my business to know these things." She said defensively. She went back to checking him and he willingly let her. When she was done she stood back up.  
"Well I have work to do now." She added leaving the smaller light on, next to the bed but turning out the larger one. She left the room in a huff. Great, now he was taking his frustration out on everyone else. He turned on his side and tried to get back to sleep. None of them could understand what he was going through right now anyway. He didn't even understand it himself and that seemed kind of scary. There were just too many unanswered questions.  
***  
  
Sally took a seat at her desk still frustrated at Heero's attitude. Quatre, Duo and Trowa walked in as she tossed some files away and started typing at her computer. They headed over to her desk. Duo placed a disk infront of her nose. She looked up waiting for an explanation.  
  
"And what is that?" She sounded a bit demanding.  
"The missing information from Wing Zero we lost before." Trowa filled her in. She took it from Duo and placed it on the desk where it wasn't cluttered. She let out an angry sigh.  
"Are you alright? Anything we can do?" Quatre asked her. She looked up trying not to seem so upset.  
"I'll be fine. Heero's just..well, being himself I guess. I don't know how to explain it." She mentioned.   
  
"I'm sure he just needs to get past today and he'll be alright later." Trowa told her confidently.  
"Yeah, we don't know what went on at that base before we got there." Duo pointed out agreeing with Trowa. Sally just nodded.  
"I just don't understand why he's acting like this that's all. I mean Relena wasn't in there very long herself. That just didn't seem right either." She added.  
  
"He's not use to being forced to stay in bed that's all." Trowa answered her. He would know about that considering what happened during the war. She looked back at her computer. Quatre and Duo left the room, and Trowa picked the disk up off the corner of her desk and headed over to his own across the room.  
"I'll download this again into our systems." He told her as he put it into his computer.  
"Thanks, just be sure to put it into a locked file." She reminded him.  
***  
  
Duo and Quatre headed for the break room. They entered the room and went for the fridge against the far wall. Quatre opened the door as Duo got a plate and a mug down from the cabinet.  
  
"Man, I just don't understand why Heero's behaving this way. I mean you'd think he'd be happy to be back and Relena's here too. I don't get it." Duo said exasperated. Quatre pulled out a container of water for a cup of tea.  
"Well, I think he just needs to get better and he'll be okay. Just like Trowa said." Quatre answered. "Although I didn't see if he was remotely happy to be with Relena before. That's kind of odd." He added, heating up his water. Duo was rumaging through the fridge now.  
  
"That doesn't seem too odd to me. But he does seem to be avoiding her." He remarked. Quatre got his tea and sat down at the table nearby. Duo found an apple and stuck it in his mouth as he was still looking for something else to eat as well.  
"It really isn't our business anyway if you think about it." Quatre thought outloud. Duo stuck his head up over the fridge door to give Quatre a look. "Well it's not." Quatre reiterated. Duo pulled the apple away from his mouth and leaned on the door.  
  
"In theory no, but it makes things interesting anyway." He said scratching his head and disappearing back into the fridge. He finally gave up on his search and went over to the table. Quatre looked up from his mug.  
"So why are you here and not with Hilde?" He asked catching Duo off guard. He swallowed before answering.  
"Because she's still working on some special project for Noin and Zechs. I'm not sure what it is but it seems important. She's been spending alot of time on it." He explained. Quatre took another sip of his tea. Duo glanced down at his watch. We should really be getting back to work soon." He remarked taking another bite. When they finished up, they went back to the bridge. There was usually something to do.   
  
They met Wufei there. He was watching the news from his station to see if there were any reports about the day's events.  
"We didn't think we'd find you here." Quatre told him as they walked up.  
"I was just checking if there is any word about our attack today." He explained to them not getting up or moving from his position. Duo pulled on the back of his chair.  
"Hey you haven't seen us on it yet have you?" He asked looking at the screen. Wufei pushed him away.  
  
"Get back." He growled and moved his chair away. Quatre hid his smile with his hand and tried not to laugh. Duo walked away from Wufei's station, obviously bored.  
"So I take it Heero's going to survive." Wufei mentioned to Quatre as he turned the channel to another news broadcaster.  
"Did you doubt he would?" He asked back. Wufei looked up at him.  
"No, but it's good to know that girl won't be sticking around much longer." He said flatly. Quatre stared at him in surprise. "That's not very nice to say Wufei." Quatre told him in a low voice. But he could tell that Wufei didn't seem to care if it was nice or not.  
  
"I don't get what you have against Relena anyway." Quatre added. Wufei turned in his seat. "I don't have anything against HER. All I know is whenever she's around things always get busy for us. Plus this isn't a hotel here, it's a ship. Where real work is done. I don't get why Sally gives her special privileges either." He explained turning the channel again.  
  
"Well then that's something you should ask Sally. But you shouldn't take it out on Relena. She's had a hard time lately and it's not like she's not busy either. She usually comes here to help Sally with certain political projects that you don't know about." Quatre answered.  
"I guess so, but it still seems strange that she's the only political representative that gets involved with the Preventers." Wufei remarked. Quatre decided that the conversation wasn't going anywhere and gave up.  
***  
  
It was now around seven o'clock according to their time on the ship. Heero had gotten some sleep but it wasn't for very long. Now he laid there trying to decide if he was going to attempt to get up or just stay there. From what he could tell, Sally might have come in once while he was asleep to check on him but that was it as far as visitors were concerned. He wondered what Relena was doing. He wasn't sure if she'd come see him again considering how things had gone earlier. His door cracked open some and he glanced up to see who it was. The light came on suddenly and he covered his eyes and groaned angrily.  
  
"Opps sorry bout that." He heard Duo from the doorway and the light went off again. He entered and went over to the bed, carrying some items in his arms.  
"What's that?" Heero inquired, sitting up in the bed. Duo placed two of the items on top of the monitor. Then he handed him a small white box.  
"That's your dinner. And these.." He started handing him two folders. He recognized them from before.  
  
"Trowa found at the base and figured you would rather have them." He explained and Heero nodded back. "And don't worry, I didn't bother reading them, as tempting as it was." He grinned, getting the last item for him.  
"And here's your shirt. Relena washed it and sewed that rip in it for you." He explained also handing that to him. He just nodded again placing it next to him along with the folders. Duo took a seat next to the bed and propted his feet up on it.  
  
"Well yah know someone has to take care of you." He added, relaxing in the chair.  
"Your talking about Relena, aren't you." Heero said back.  
"I'm not talking about me. You don't know how good you've got it." Was the reply he got. He shook his head as if he didn't agree. He didn't think Duo would understand but a question had been bothering him for awhile now.  
  
"What made you decide to get serious with Hilde?" He asked, getting Duo's full attention. Duo scratched the back of his head and thought about it. "And I want a serious answer this time." He added causing Duo to think even more.  
"Guess I didn't have much of a reason. I figured it'd be nice to have someone there for me and to take care of." He finally admitted. Heero looked straight ahead.  
"So it wasn't anything like love?" He said in a low voice. Duo sat up quickly, waving his hands back and forth.  
  
"No, I didn't say I didn't love her. I do." He remarked. Heero looked back at him.  
"Then why didn't you just say that?" He asked.  
"Because that wasn't my reason at first. And besides, loves too weird to explain anyway." He remarked, sitting against the back of the chair again.  
"From what I can tell, your lucky to have Relena. She worries about you the same way Hilde worries about me." He told Heero.  
"Why does that make me lucky?" He said back. Duo let out an exasperated sigh.  
  
"Because you have no claims on her, that's why. You haven't made any decisions at all on your relationship with her. It's been going on like this for four years now and she still thinks of you the same way. You can even ask Quatre, he and I have seen it the most. Now to tell you the truth, you don't really deserve it. And one day she might just leave and you'll never know what you had." He elaborated. Heero just sat there and listened.  
  
"But there's so much I don't understand. What if things don't work out?" He mentioned.  
"And what if they do. I think by now you should know if it will or won't. You've known her for so long. And you don't have to know everything. Your so use to acting on your emotions, you only seem to apply that to every aspect of your life but Relena." Came the reply. Heero was now thinking about this in an entirely different way. He knew Duo was right, he had still managed to shut Relena out. Duo stood up from his chair and stretched.  
  
"Hate to be the one to tell you this, but she puts up with alot more then you do." He said. Heero still felt as if Duo still couldn't understand until he ended the conversation.  
"Guess we can't live as soldiers forever." He added heading for the door. Okay so maybe he did understand to a point.  
"Don't let your dinner get cold." Was the last thing he said before closing the door. Heero opened the box but suddenly didn't seem to want to eat now. Although the growling sound his stomach made disagreed with him.  
***  
  
A couple hours later, Relena decided she should visit Heero again. She was going to apologize for how she acted before. She should have realized that he wasn't going to be up for conversation but she just left because she felt that he didn't want her there. But he never said anything like that. She interpreted something wrong. She opened the door and peeked in. He was still awake, and had finished his dinner. She came all the way in. He looked up at her and wanted to smile but didn't. 'Oh I'm off to great start.' He told himself. She took a seat in the chair nearby instead of on the bed like before. She noticed his shirt on the bed and smiled.  
  
"I guess you got your shirt back." She mentioned. He looked up at her and nodded.  
"Thanks for fixing it for me." He said back, finally giving her a slight grin.  
"That's fine. I wanted to do something for you." She explained. He looked back down at the shirt. Relena leaned forward causing him to quickly meet her gaze. He didn't realize how pretty she looked before. Her hair was down and she was wearing a white dress with a pink sweater over it. She sat there with her legs crossed, perfect posture as always.  
  
"I wanted to apologize for the way I acted before. I should have known that you wouldn't want to talk yet." She said still leaning forward. Heero was still lost in his own thoughts about her that he almost didn't hear her.  
"It was nothing. Don't worry about it. I could have been nicer anyway." came the monotoned response. Relena looked down at the floor. "Well yeah but I just left and that was rude." She said in a low voice. Heero leaned over, wanting to cringe from the movement but didn't. He lifted her chin so that she was looking back up at him.  
  
"I told you not to worry." He repeated. She gave him another smile that said she complied with his request. She stood up and sat back on the bed like before. Heero shifted his position some in order to get comfortable again.  
"So how long do you think Sally's gonna want you to stay here?" She asked him. He gave her a shrug.  
"I'm not sure. She hasn't told me an actual amount of time. I suppose I could use the time off anyway." He replied. She smiled and nodded back. "I guess it wouldn't be such a bad idea." She observed still smiling. Heero leaned over getting Relena's full attention.  
  
"Relena, I've been doing alot of thinking lately." He started. She wasn't sure where this conversation was going but continued to listen anyway. "I know that I haven't really made any decisions about where the two of us stand. To tell you the truth I'm still not entirely sure myself." He explained looking away from her. Relena reached out to touch his hand, causing him to look back up.  
"What's about the two of us?" She asked curiously.  
"Well I think that we should make a decision now." He told her, still unsure how to approach this conversation. Relena was obviously confused about what he was talking about.  
  
"I think that, well..I guess I think we should get more serious." He emphasized. Relena was starting to understand and gave him a smile.   
"So how serious are we talking here anyway?" She finally said now only inches away from him. He leaned closer to her and she closed her eyes. He'd never kissed her like that before. There seemed to be some emotions behind it this time. Relena let out a soft sigh as Heero's hand came up to her face to brush her hair back behind her ear. They separated and Heero was actually the first one to speak.  
  
"I want to be with you,...for the rest of my life." He admitted. Relena could feel her eyes tearing up as he ended his sentence. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him again. He wasn't expecting that response. They separated again with their foreheads still touching.  
  
"So do you want to think about it first?" He asked as she was still crying. She let out a small laugh and sniffed. His hand came up to her face to whip the tears away.   
"The only thing I don't have is a ring though." He spoke softly in her ear. She smiled at him encouragingly, showing that she didn't care. "I wouldn't have ever thought that you would do something like this. I mean after this entire situation and with what's happened over the past years, I just figured that.." She stopped when she looked back at him. He was staring back at her, his expression softer then usual. She felt his arms go around to her back and he held her closer, burying his face in her hair. She could have melted right there.  
***  
  
In the hallway nearby Hilde and Duo were standing. Duo was waiting for Relena to rush out of the room with some kind of news about Heero and herself. Although he wasn't sure what to expect. Quatre came walking up happily and noticed the two of them.  
  
"Hey what are you two standing out here for?" He asked curiously. Hilde just shrugged and Duo didn't answer him.  
"So where are you headed to?" Duo asked as Quatre walked by them towards the ICU.  
"Oh I figured I'd see if Heero needs anything before I leave." He said as he walked.  
"Nooo, you can't go in there!" Duo exclaimed and practically tackled Quatre. Quatre sat up from the floor and looked at Duo.  
"Why not?" He asked. Hilde was also looking at Duo questionable, herself.  
"Because, Relena's in there now. You can't interrupt them, they need to talk." He answered. Quatre stood up, brushing off his uniform and looked up at Duo suspiciously.  
  
"You know something, don't you." He noticed, walking towards Duo. Duo let out a weak laugh.  
"You really think Heero would tell ME anything. That's funny." He said back. Hilde shook her head and closed her eyes as she spoke.  
"He never was good at lying." She muttered to herself. Duo went to duck behind her as Quatre came after him.  
"I know your hiding something. Come on Duo, tell me. I can keep a secret." Quatre begged him. Duo just shook his head back. Relena finally walked out of the ICU in a daze. Hilde caught sight of her first.  
  
"Hey Relena, anything going on?" She asked, causing the other two to look up at her. Relena just smiled, not saying anything. Duo grinned back.  
"I think she finally got herself a serious boyfriend now." He announced, waiting to see what she'd do. She continued to smile, almost maliciously at them.   
"Well is that it? Heero finally admitted that he likes you?" Hilde asked her. Relena looked like she was deep in thought. Quatre walked over to her and waved a hand infront of her face. She snapped out of her daze.  
"Oh I'm sorry Hilde. I was just trying to decide if you'd like to be my maid of honor?" She mentioned, smiling even more. Hilde let out an excited scream and ran over to hug Relena happily. Quatre couldn't help but smile now. Duo scratched the back of his head.  
  
"Sheesh I didn't think he's go that far. Oh come on Hilde, your embarrassing me here." He said as Hilde was now jumping up and down happily. She looked over at him.  
"I'm aloud to be happy for her." Was all she said.   
"Well can I go see Heero now?" Quatre asked Relena. She turned her attention to him.  
"Actually I think he went back to sleep. Sorry." She told him. Duo leaned over to Quatre.  
  
"Don't think I don't know what your up to, Quatre." He said in a low voice. Quatre looked at him, confused. "Your trying to get dibs on the best man position. I believe it's already been filled." He said proudly.   
"I wasn't thinking about that at all." Quatre objected quickly. Relena looked over at the two of them.  
"Actually Heero said something about Wufei." She mentioned, looking up innocently at the ceiling. They two of them shot her a look.  
"What!?!" Duo remarked. He practically fell over. She looked back down at him as he slouched, and smiled.  
  
It was that almost malicious smile of hers again. He just shook his head in response.  
"Nah, he wouldn't do that to me." He grinned, then quickly looked at Quatre who was sneaking to the entrance of the ICU.  
  
"Quatre! Hey, don't think I'm letting you get away!" He called after him and Quatre started running. Duo followed him quickly. Hilde and Relena decided not to get involved in it. They headed in the other direction, still talking excitingly.  
  
***The*End?***  
  
Writer's notes: -_- okay so there's my death glare, so feel free to review. 


End file.
